Nintendo Land is Nintendo's second Massive Multiplayer Crossover and a launch title for the Nintendo Wii U. But instead of having players beat flagship characters to a pulp like in Super Smash Bros., this game takes elements from several of Nintendo's franchises and turns them into theme park attractions. Assuming the role of their Mii characters, players are invited to play along inside this virtual theme park by a robotic screen that looks like the GamePad, named Monita.

Nintendo Land is practically what Wii Sports was for the original Wii, a fun and lighthearted game made to show off what the system was capable of doing, while introducing new players to Nintendo's famed franchises. This game is bundled with the deluxe Wii U set. Otherwise, it has to be bought separately.

This game is divided into twelve sub-games, each having different uses of the Wii U's controller. Three of the games can be played with multiple people playing as a teamnote But can be played solo as well., while three other ones can only be played with multiple people, and some are only played solonote Though you can have friends join in with Wii Remotes to help you. Nintendo describes the multiplayer as "asymmetric gameplay", because of the GamePad's independent screen. Depending on what type of controller you use, your gameplay experience will be different.

The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest (The Legend of Zelda) - In this game, the player with the GamePad takes the role of an archer, who fires arrows to fight enemies and solve puzzles not shown on the TV screen. Players with Wii Remotes join in armed with swords and shields, allowing everyone to fight against the enemy hordes together as a team. Also available is a time attack mode where the archer has to clear out a wave of enemies as fast as possible.

Pikmin Adventure (Pikmin) - This game tasks players to work together as a team to escape from the wilderness. With the GamePad, the player is dressed in Olimar's spacesuit, who controls smaller Pikmin. With Wii Remotes, the other players are dressed as Pikmin. They provide backup by fighting enemies directly. There's also a versus mode where the GamePad player and the other players duke it out.

Metroid Blast (Metroid) - A combat-heavy third-person shooter game that has many different ways to play. The person with the GamePad mans a gunship and fights from the air. Other players can aid, or battle against, this person on foot using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Ground vs. ground, ground vs. air, or a team survival mode are the modes playable.

Mario Chase (Super Mario Bros.) - A game of tag with a Mario twist. The person with the GamePad, dressed as Mario, must run away from other players dressed as Toads. Mario has the advantage by having a map and a ten second headstart. This is one of the games that requires at least two players.

Luigi's Ghost Mansion (Luigi's Mansion) - In this game, up to four players must clean out a mansion haunted by a ghost, who is the person with the GamePad. They can control where the ghost goes, and are also invisible to the others until exposed by a flashlight or lightning. The ghost also causes nearby players' Wii Remotes to rumble, alerting them of the ghost's presence. The goal is for either side to eliminate the other. Another two-players-or-more-only game.

Animal Crossing: Sweet Day (Animal Crossing) - Also requring at least two players, this game is Cops and Robbers with a sweet twist. Playing as animals, up to four players must run around a town and collect a certain amount of candy from trees. The player with the GamePad controls two guards, who must be avoided.

Donkey Kong's Crash Course (Donkey Kong) - A single player game where a cart, operated by the GamePad, must be guided through an elaborate maze filled with contraptions inspired by the arcade classic.

Takamaru's Ninja Castle ( Nazo No Murasamej&#333;note The Mysterious Murasame Castle, a 1986 Famicom Disk System exclusive until it was released for the 3DS Virtual Console in 2014.) - Another single player game, this game is essentially a light-gun-style game where the GamePad is used to throw ninja stars and rescue Monita from invading ninjas.

Balloon Trip Breeze (Balloon Fight) - A remake of the Balloon Trip mode from the original game, but this time the player must guide their Mii with gusts of wind created by drawing lines on the GamePad's touch screen. Obstacles also must be removed by the touch screen.

Yoshi's Fruit Cart (Yoshi's Island) - A single player game where the player guides a robotic Yoshi along a path to find fruit and to the goal door. However, the fruit and obstacles are only shown on the TV screen, and only the path you draw is shown on the GamePad.

Octopus Dance (Game & Watchnote Specifically, it's based on Octopus, which is a G&W game) - The player must mimic a diver's dancing moves with the GamePad's control sticks and the gyroscope (somewhat similar to the gameplay of another Game & Watch game, Flagman). The TV provides a front view, and the GamePad provides a rear view. The diver may turn the player's Mii around at certain times and an octopus will sometimes ink one screen, so both must be used together.

Captain Falcon's Twister Race (F-Zero) - In the single player game, the player pilots a wind-up Blue Falcon on a race track. They must use the GamePad as a steering wheel and get to the finish line in time.

Tropes related to the game

Action Bomb: Explosive Beebs appear in later stages of Pikmin Adventure. Fortunately, they only explode if they aren't killed quickly enough, and the explosion takes out other enemies as well.

If you fail to escape in Pikmin Adventure too many times, an assist block will appear. If you accept it, it will supercharge Olimar and any Mii Pikmin to level 50, or in time missions add a minute to the clock, but at the cost of being unable earn a Master rank.

Dying in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest will spawn a skull that can be broken for a recovery heart in the location you failed at in your previous run. It doesn't nullify master rank, but that always involves doing a No Damage Run, so it's useless for master rank.

Anti-Poop Socking : The game will recommend taking breaks regularly, just like many other Nintendo games.

Are These Wires Important?: Closer inspection of the gunship from Metroid Blast reveals that it also has A/V and Passive Speaker inputs, which doesn't seem to serve any purpose.

The enemies in Metroid Blast can only be damaged if you hit their weak spots, which look like power buttons.

The enemies in Pikmin Adventure can only be damaged by attacking the purple spheres on their bodies.

The enemies in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest sometimes have armor or shields, so they only get hurt if you attack them where they are unprotected.

Big Eater: Sweet Day has players trying to eat the most candy. However, the more candy eaten, the slower the player moves.

The Yoshi Cart in Yoshi's Fruit Cart.

Boss Rush: The final bonus stage of Pikmin Adventure has you fighting all the bosses in the game, as well as the upgraded version of the final boss.

Boss Subtitles: Used in Pikmin Adventure, and Metroid Blast. Despite them being an iconic part of the actual game series, The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest lacks them, probably because the bosses are usually regular enemies.

Metroid Blast allows shots to be charged for special effects. The Gunship can shoot explosive missiles, while on-foot players can shoot rolling bombs.

Pikmin players in Pikmin Adventure can charge up an attack unique to the seed they have. No seed is a simple forward slam, Hammer Seed is a chain of forward-moving slams, Whip Seed is a spin attack, and Knuckle Seed is a Kamehame Hadoken.

Archers in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest can charge arrows, giving them more damage and a piercing effect. However, they can't move while charging.

Ghosts in Luigi's Ghost Mansion can charge up an attack that disables everyone's flashlights. It leaves them visible and a sitting duck to the other players, though.

Clothing Damage: The more damage you receive in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, the more torn your Mii's hat and tunic get.

In Luigi's Ghost Mansion, the ghost can launch a chargeable battery-draining special attack on the humans in order to discourage camping. They also reduce the number of lives with more players, as it's easier to revive someone that's dead with more people playing. There are also Monitas with flashlights helping out when there are less people.

In Metroid Blast, if you dodge too many times in succession, your Mii will strike a pose when they land that leaves them wide open.

Some of the multiplayer games have bigger maps if more players play.

In Animal Crossing Sweet Day if there's only one villager, they get to drop off the candy at safepoints so they don't get too slow from carrying all of them around. 3 or more players and the villagers have to carry the target capacity at once to win, with more candy required for more people.

Controller Shaking: Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest has an anti-waggle feature for the sword players. If you waggle your Wii Remote for more than a second or so, the game will stop registering the motions as sword slashes until you stop waggling.

Evil Twin: Parodied with Dark Monita, who is basically another Monita that wears a purple jester hat. She appears in Pikmin Adventure, as her role is the "evil overlord" in that game, and Metroid Blast, where she sets up the boss battles.

Fainting: If the ghost catches anyone in Luigi's Ghost Mansion, this is what happens to them. They can be revived if someone else shines their flashlight on them.

Feed It a Bomb: Kraid in Metroid Blast can be hurt by pumping explosives down his throat, hitting the weak spot inside his stomach.

Game-Breaking Bug: During the first few days after the release, the game would sometimes have a ridiculously long Loading Screen at the title screen and would even sometimes freeze. This bug has thankfully been patched.

Heart Container: Giant hearts in Pikmin Adventure extend your life bar to six hearts, but the cap will be reduced to three when the player loses those extra hearts. It also only lasts for one stage.

Hearts Are Health: Used in Takamaru's Ninja Castle, Octopus DancePikmin Adventure, and The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest.

Heroic Mime: The Miis. Unless you count the Miiverse posts as talking...

The Host: A robotic screen that looks like the GamePad, named Monita. She offers advice on all the games.

Hostage Spirit Link: In stage 3 of Takamaru's Ninja Castle. During the second time through to rescue the real Princess Monita, she will appear along with the ninjas throughout the stage. If you hit her, you lose health.

Insistent Terminology: They're not mini-games, they're "attractions". This is probably to try to avoid it from seeming like a casual minigame collection, which was a main detraction from the Wii for core gamers. Whether or not it works is up to debate.

The traditional Starman appears in Captain Falcon's Twister Race, Balloon Trip Breeze, and Mario Chase. Only Mario can pick it up in the latter, though.

One of the possible power-ups in Metroid Blast is a shield that protects you from all damage for a short while.

Invincible Minor Mook: Common obstacles in Pikmin Adventure are Beebs with near-infinite health that never stop rolling once they get started. Either they must be dodged and ignored, or they die when other enemies are taken care of.

Invisible to Normals: The ghost in Luigi's Ghost Mansion. Although lightning can reveal where it is temporarily.

Life Meter: Games with combat in them have heart meters. Metroid Blast is the only game where players don't share health.

Meaningful Name / Bilingual Bonus: Monita's name comes from モニター (monitā),the Japanese pronounciation of the English word, "monitor". This technically makes his/her/its name "Monitor".

Mecha-Mooks: The enemies in Pikmin Adventure and Metroid Blast are clearly robotic.

Mook Chivalry: Zig-Zagged in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest. Most enemies that attack you directly will simply wait if they're not the current target, but archers will always take potshots at you, and some enemies will attack you anyway.

Mook Maker: Wizzrobes in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest spawn Keese as their main form of attack.

If the human teams loses to the ghost in Luigi's Ghost Mansion, they're greeted with "Good night..." on the TV. This was the same message if Luigi got a Game Over in the original game.

In Pikmin Adventure, if a Pikmin player doesn't board the ship at the end of a level after Olimar does, they'll eventually get left behind as the ship takes off without them, just like in the actual series. However, they will reappear with Olimar in the next level.

A very subtle one; One loading screen has an image of Monita drinking a cup of coffee. This is a reference to the Wii U's codename. "Project Café".

Nintendo Hard: The Extra Stages in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest and Metroid Blast (available after beating all standard stages) and several games as a whole, particularly Donkey Kong's Crash Course and Balloon Trip Breeze which demand very precise control.

No Arc in Archery: Averted in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest. Arrows are affected by both gravity and air currents.

No Damage Run: All of the Master Challenges in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest and Pikmin Advnture require this. Also needed for some in Metroid Blast.

No Fair Cheating: The hardest stamps to get in the single-player games will not be given out if you use Assisted Play (letting someone use a Wiimote to to help out). With Yoshi's Fruit Cart, you're also not allowed to use checkmarks or warp gates for the Gatemaster stamp.

One-Hit Polykill: Fully charged arrows in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest are capable of piercing multiple enemies unless it hits something like armor or a shield.

Parody Magic Spell: Monita says some of the most done-to-death ones at the beginning of the game.

Press X to Not Die: In the Zelda attraction, when an archer or Giant Mook launches an attack at you while playing as the archer, you will receive one of a few promptsnote "Press ZL + ZR!" "Tilt Left!" or "Tilt Right!" that enable you to dodge the attack.

Spot the Imposter: When you beat Takamaru's Ninja Castle the first time, it's revealed that Princess Monita was actually Murasame. You have to to throw stars at him to reveal the disguise.

Spiritual Successor: Mario Chase and Animal Crossing: Sweet Day are one to Pac-Man Vs., as they use that game's setup of allowing one player to see the entire playfield on a separate screen, while others are limited to corners of the TV screen and limited views.

Sound Test: The music box item, which has songs that can replace the main plaza theme of the player's choice. Songs sold seperately.

One of the songs isn't even a song, but a shuffle button (a la iPod) can be unlocked as well.

Survival Horror: Luigi's Ghost Mansion is a competitive form of this genre. The human players are disadvantaged against the invisible ghost.

Some levels in Pikmin Adventure run on a very short time limit that is extended by collecting timers. Also, getting the Master Challenges for the game requires speedrunning the levels.

A few levels in Metroid Blast have time limits. Generally, these involve collecting tokens or finding and killing enemies.

Captain Falcon's Twister Race has a continuous time limit. Hit too many obstacles, and you won't be able to reach the area split and gain a time boost before you run out.

Tech Demo Game: Quite literally. A number of the included minigames were used as tech demos when the Wii U was originally revealed, before it turned out that they were all bundled together in one place.

Ten-Second Flashlight: The flashlights used in Luigi's Ghost Mansion have a limited charge. You'll have to find another battery if it runs dry.

Tennis Boss: If you fight a Wizzrobe in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest without an archer, this is how you fight it.

The Theme Park Version: The team-based attractions are mission-based, and each is vaguely based on the adventures of their respective protagonists. Pikmin Adventure is even said to be based on Olimar's first visit to the mysterious planet..

Toilet Humor: Enough to warrant an E10+ rating: If a player gets eaten in Pikmin Adventure by a Bulborb, they'll get ejected out with a giant clay turd that encompasses their whole body.

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